HEP will collect high-resolution clinical information and treatment response, MRI’s, EEG, and blood and urine samples for biomarkers. A major outcome of the project is to create an open data repository of clinical information and biologic samples for future studies.

HEP is established as a partnership between 26 academic centers, foundations and industry. HEP will enroll 500 patients with newly or recently diagnosed focal epilepsy. We will follow these patients for a minimum of three years and characterize their clinical course and evolution. HEP has the potential to provide new insights into the biological basis of epilepsy, which will advance our efforts to discover effective treatments and cures for these important disorders.

For the vast majority of patients with epilepsy, we do not understand the biological basis of their disease, we do not know whether a given medication will be effective, and we cannot predict the severity of the seizure disorder, the potential emergence of complications, or the likelihood of seizures stopping. HEP will help answer these questions.